National Games 2023: Dhinidhi Desinghu, Srihari Nataraj star for Karnataka in swimming

Fourteen-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu became the youngest female swimmer to win seven gold medals in the National Games while Srihari Nataraj finished with ten medals including eight gold, one silver and bronze each as Karnataka topped the standings chart at the end of aquatic competitions of the 2023 National Games on Saturday.

Entering the last day’s competition, Desinghu was locked with teammate Nina Venkatesh with five golds and both had two more events to compete. It was the youngster who took the gold in the 100m freestyle with a new Games record to forge ahead.

Later, she and Nina teamed up with Nataraj and Vidith Shankar to help Karnataka clinch the gold in the 4x100m medley relay, the final event of the swimming competition of the National Games to complete a haul of seven gold medals.

Haryana and Punjab shared the four gold medals on offer, on day two of the shooting competitions. Two Olympians, Anjum Moudgil and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions and men’s skeet respectively, were among the gold medallists.

Haryana’s golds came through Sanjana Sood in the women’s skeet and the pair of Sarabjot Singh and Palak Gulia in the 10m air pistol mixed team event. Haryana now have three of the five golds decided in shooting so far, after Sagar Bhargava had won the men’s 10m air pistol on the opening day on Friday.

Defending champions Services and Haryana have inched closer to table leaders Maharashtra taking their gold medal tally to 51 and 45 respectively. Maharashtra have a total of 179 medals that includes 63 gold and 58 each silver and bronze medals.

Harshitha Jayaram of Kerala won gold in 100m Breaststroke with a new games record while S.P Likith of Services won the event in the men’s section with a timing of 1:02.25s. Nataraj won the gold in the 100m men’s freestyle with a dominating swim, creating a new games record and stopping the clock at 49.97s.

Haryana won their second Shooting gold of the 2023 National Games when the pair of Sarabjot Singh and Palak Gulia won the 10m air pistol mixed team event, with a 17-11 win over Rajasthan’s Khanak Vyas and Amit Sharma. The two teams got to the gold medal match by means of coming first and second in qualification.

While Sarabjot and Palak topped with a combined score of 581, Khanak and Amit were second with 577. Madhya Pradesh won bronze. Olympian and former world championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil was next to top the podium as she got back to the winning way after an indifferent year, registering a pillar to post victory over the likes of world record holder Sift Kaur Samra and Hangzhou Asiad star Ashi Chouksey who won silver and bronze respectively.

Asian Games mixed doubles gold medallist Rutuja Bhosale partnered with Prarthana Thombare to win the gold medal in the women’s doubles tennis competition. The Maharashtra pair beat Sravya Shivani and Rashmika Bhamipaty of Telangana in straight sets (6-3, 6-1).

Later, Maharashtra also won gold in the men’s doubles category as Arjun Khade and Purav Raja beat Prajwal S.D Dev and Adil Kalyanpur of Karnataka in straight sets (7-6, 6-3) to win the gold.

In the canoeing and kayaking competition, Madhya Pradesh’s Arjun Singh who had represented the country in in Hangzhou clinched two medals in the canoeing races. In the individual 1000m category, Arjun won gold with a timing of 4:19.375s. Later he partnered with Sonu Verma to win silver in the 1000m canoe with a timing of 4.29.055s. Services won the gold while Odisha won the bronze.

Important Results:

Swimming

Men’s 100 M Freestyle

Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Karnataka) – 49.97 s (NGR)

Silver – A.S Anand (SSCB) – 51.37 s

Bronze – Vishal Grewal (Delhi) – 51.48 s

Women’s 100 M Freestyle

Gold – Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) – 57.87 s (NGR)

Silver – Shivangi Sarma (Assam) – 58.07 s

Bronze – Janhvi Choudhary (West Bengal) – 58.37 s

Women’s 100 M Breaststroke

Gold – Harshitha Jayaram (Kerala) – 1:13.89 s (NGR)

Silver – A.K Linyesha (Karnataka) – 1:13.99 s

Bronze – Venika Parikh (Gujarat) – 1:14.64 s

Men’s 100 M Breaststroke

Gold – S.P Likith (SSCB) – 1:02.25 s

Silver – S. Danush (Tamil Nadu) – 1:03.95 s

Bronze – S. Suneesh (SSCB) – 1:04.64 s

4X100 M Mixed Medley Relay

Gold – Karnataka – 4:03.80 s

(Srihari Nataraj, Vidith S. Shankar, Nina Venkatesh, Dhinidhi Desinghu)

Silver – Maharashtra – 4:09.75 s

(Palak Joshi, Hiba Chougle, Mihir Ambre, Virdhawal Khade)

Bronze – West Bengal – 4:11.87 s

(Soubrity Mondal, Sayan Bhowmik, Sanu Debnath, Janhvi Choudhary)

Shooting

10 M Air Pistol Mixed Team

Gold – Sarabjot Singh/Palak Gulia

Silver – Khanak Vyas/Amit Sharma

Bronze – Nancy Solanki/Yugpratap Singh Rathore

50 M Rifle 3 Positions Women

Gold – Anjum Moudgil (Punjab) – 458.9 points

Silver – Sift Kaur Samra (Punjab) – 458.2 points

Bronze – Ashi Chouksey (Madhya Pradesh) – 445.3 points

Skeet Women

Gold – Sanjana Sood (Haryana)

Silver – Raizia Dhillon (Haryana)

Bronze – Maheshwari Chauhan (Rajasthan)

Skeet Men

Gold – Angad Vir Singh Bajwa (Punjab)

Silver – Rituraj Bundela (Madhya Pradesh)

Bronze – Arjun Thakur (SSCB)

Tennis

Women’s Doubles

Finals - Rutuja Bhosale/Prarthana Thombare (Maharashtra) bt Rashmika Bhamipaty/Sravya Shivani (Telangana) – 6/3, 6/1)

Bronze – C. Sai Samhitha/Janani Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) and Sharmada Balu/Soha Sadiq (Karnataka)

Men’s Doubles

Finals – Arjun Khade/Purav Raja (Mahrashtra) bt Prajwal S.D Dev/Adil Kalyanpur (Karnataka) – 7/6, 6/3

Bronze – Digvijay Singh/Karan Singh (Haryana) and Siddharth Vishwakarma/Sidharth Rawat (Uttar Pradesh)         

Canoeing & Kayaking

Men’s 1000 M Kayak Individual

Gold – L. Naocha Singh (Manipur) – 3:58.895 s

Silver – Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:03.4 s

Bronze – Oinam Arun Singh (Manipur) – 4:05.420 s

Men’s 1000 M Kayak Pair

Gold – K.R Kannan/Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) – 3:43.830 s

Silver – Tomthilnganba Ngashepam/Khangembam Nanao Meitei (Odisha) – 3:44.00

Bronze – CH. Devabrata Singh/Ajatsatru Sharma (SSCB) – 3:50.190 s

Men’s 1000 M Canoe Pair

Gold – PH. Gyaneshwor Singh/N. Ribason Singh (SSCB) – 4:22.830 s

Silver – Arjun Singh/Sonu Verma (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:29.055 s

Bronze – Phairembam Borish Singh/Avinash Shingam (Odisha) – 4:37.630 s

Men’s 1000 M Canoe Individual

Gold – Arjun Singh (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:19.375 s

Silver – Salam Sunil Singh (SSCB) – 4:30.245 s

Bronze – Ningthoujam Nepolian (Karnataka) – 4:31.920 s

Triathlon

Individual Men

Gold – Adarsh Murlidharan S (SSCB) – 1:02:25 s

Silver – K.P Yajat Aiyappa (Karnataka) – 1:02:43 s

Bronze – Khundrakpam Nganba Meitei (Manipur) – 1:03:04 s

Wushu

Women’s Taijijian

Gold – Yengkhom Geeta Devi (Manipur) – 9:15 points

Silver – Shravani Khatke (Maharashtra) – 8.15 points

Bronze –Sakshi Johri (Uttar Pradesh) – 8.10 points

Men’s Taijijian

Gold – H. Karanjit Sharma (SSCB) – 9.55 points

Silver – Sanma Brahma (Assam) – 9:35 points

Bronze – Abhishekh Mehto (Delhi) – 8.60 points

Women’s Nangun

Gold – Neelam Choudhary (Rajasthan) – 9.00 points

Silver – Konjengbam Luxmi Devi (Manipur) – 8.80 points

Bronze – Geeta Xalxo (Jharkhand) – 8.00 points

Men’s Nangun

Gold – Bonish Yurembram (Manipur) – 9.00 points

Silver – Sher Bahaddur (Goa) – 8.85 points

Bronze – Prashant Manhans (Himachal Pradesh) – 8.10 points

Cycling

Women Sprint Team

Gold – Maharashtra – 00:52.807 s

Silver – Manipur – 00:53.930 s

Bronze – Andaman & Nicobar Islands – 00:54.644 s

Women Omnium Individual

Gold – Meenakshi (Haryana) – 141 points

Silver – Keerthi Ralagaswamy C (Karnataka) – 131 points

Bronze – Swasti Singh (Odisha) – 129 points

Men Sprint Team

Gold – Manipur – 00:46.546 s

Silver – Andaman & Nicobar Islands – 00:47.675 s

Bronze – SSCB – 00:48.356 s

Lawn Bowls

Men’s Pairs

Gold – Jharkhand

Silver – West Bengal

Bronze – Delhi, Madhya Pradesh

Men’s Triples

Gold – Assam

Silver – West Bengal

Bronze – Jharkhand, Delhi

Women’s Fours

Gold – Assam

Silver – Delhi

Bronze – West Bengal, Odisha

Women’s Singles

Gold – Chhoti Kumari (Jharkhand)

Silver – Beena Shah (West Bengal)

Bronze – Shaistha Sharma (Delhi), Nayanmoni Saikia (Assam)

Archery

Indian Round Men Team

Gold – Assam

Silver – Haryana

Bronze – Chhattisgarh

Indian Round Women Team

Gold – Manipur

Silver – Assam

Bronze – Gujarat

Indian Round Mixed Team

Gold – Manipur

Silver – Assam

Bronze – Rajasthan

Indian Round Individual Men

Gold – Gemmeli Biraghi Naidu (Andhra Pradesh)

Silver – Saurabh Maurya (Uttar Pradesh)

Bronze – Dasarath Rajagopal (Kerala)

Indian Round Individual Women

Gold – Tutumoni Boro (Assam)

Silver – Wangkhem Malesori Devi (Manipur)

Bronze – Laiphrakpam Rojina Devi (Manipur)

Water Polo

Men’s

Gold – Maharashtra

Silver – SSCB

Bronze – West Bengal

Women’s

Gold – Kerala

Silver – West Bengal

Bronze – Maharashtra

Men’s Football

Pool A: Kerala drew Meghalaya – 2-2, Manipur bt Maharashtra – 8-3

Kabbadi

Women

Haryana bt Punjab – 31-27

Rajasthan bt Uttar Pradesh – 54 – 24

Men

SSCB drew Haryana – 34-34

Tamil Nadu by Chandigarh – 51- 27

Hockey

Men

Pool A: Odisha bt West Bengal – 12-0, Haryana bt Maharashtra – 3-1

Pool B: Tamil Nadu bt Jharkhand – 6-2

Women

Pool A: Haryana bt Madhya Pradesh – 4-2, Odisha bt Tamil Nadu – 6-1

Pool B: Punjab drew Maharashtra – 3-3